Wednesday, July 20, 2011

When I started my beach writing business in April of 2010, I opened a shop on Etsy. I already had an account there from buying things, and I'd heard so many good things about Etsy, I figured it was a good place. And it was. In little over a year I have over 300 sales on Etsy.

But Etsy is changing. The word is that they want to be more like a Social Media site because Social Media selling is the wave of the future. I understand that. And I agree with the idea, but not the way they're going about it.

First thing I noticed is they took away Alchemy. Alchemy was an area where you could request bids for an item you needed. It was supposed to come back, but it hasn't. Alchemy was great. Not only was it a good place to get a GOOD laugh at some of the requests, but sometimes it was great for coming up with new ideas for your business. AND because you interacted with the person requesting the item, it was a way to generate business.

Then they added Circles. Circles are good, in theory. They're kind of liking business pages on Facebook. But when I log into my account and see I have 300 pieces of "Activity" in my Circles, I'm not going to look through them all.

Then they messed up the forums. This was a bad thing to do.

The forums were like any other message board. It was broken down into several major headings and you could go in and ask a question and get it answered immediately.

Now you have to join a TEAM and hope that it's active and maybe get your question answered.

And finally, as of this Friday at 5pm, they are permanently closing down the Chat. Their excuse is that it's a Flash application and they're getting rid of all the Flash on the site. Ok I get that.

But that was the last way to ENCOURAGE SOCIAL INTERACTION on the site.

I joined chat probably in the fall sometime. I have made a TON of friends, business partners and sales because of chat. And I'm really upset that Etsy once again is NOT listening to their sellers and just closing things down.

The other issue I have with Etsy is they don't follow through on their own TOU. There are tons of resellers all over Etsy. Resellers are people who buy things in bulk and sell them as handmade. Regretsy does a posting on resellers all the time. (Definitely click on the link and check out Regretsy, it's hysterical).

And copyright infringement is RAMPANT. I went to Etsy.com and did a search on Perry the Platypus. It returned 50 items. I'm pretty sure that not one of them have licensing from Disney. They get reported over & over again, and I have not witnessed any item removed.

But these aren't the only reasons I'm considering leaving Etsy.

There are also money issues.

Etsy charges you 20 cents to list an item and takes 3.5% when it sells. They also encourage you to "renew" items to keep them high in the search results, which costs 20 cents each time.

Zibbet offers a free account.

**Free**

It has some limits. You can only list 50 things and there are some design things that are not available in the free account. But neither have been an issue for me yet. And if I wanted a pay account, it's only $10 a month or $70 a year.

I have spend $127 so far this year on Etsy.

And a lot of my clients, create an Etsy account on the day they visit my shop, to buy from me. I'd love to find out how many of my clients open a shop TO buy from me. Have to figure out how to find that out.

What that shows me is they'r coming from somewhere else. I do have a web page, a Twitter, a Facebook page & of course this blog. Sorry, got off topic.

Zibbet isn't as well known as Etsy. But I'm finding Etsy isn't as well known as I thought it was. So maybe that isn't as big of a factor that I thought it was.

Lastly I want to change my store name. On Etsy, it's MsSuzie

on Zibbet, it's Beachwritings.

I also have the shop name Beachwritings on Etsy, but I figured since Zibbet was free to list my items, I'd go there.

I'm not going to close down my Etsy Shop just yet, I want to evaluate Zibbet first. I'm sure there are issues with Zibbet just like with Etsy. But instead of jumping in with both feet this time, I'm going to ease in, little by little.

I'd love to hear if you have any experience with Zibbet worth sharing!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Ok, everyone loves to read all about other peoples health issues. At least that's the way it seems because that is all old people talk about!

So in honor of being "middle aged" I'm going to totally bore you with my recent medical crap.

As you know, I'm a beach writer. I take orders from my Etsy Shop to go to the beach and write things in the sand. Then I take a picture of the writings and email them to the client. I love my business. In a little over a year I've had about 400 sales.

Well on Tuesday, June 28 I almost got taken out by a wave. Normally I pay very close attention to the waves because I'm holding a camera in my hand! I am not afraid of the ocean, but this one just came out of nowhere and it actually scared me. I think it crashed down about 4 feet to my left (I was standing sideways) I jumped out of the way and ran. I probably didn't need to run, but I did.

Later that morning I had some sort of panic attack or something. All I remember is that my chest was sore and I was having trouble breathing. I thought it was from drinking too much coffee that morning and laid down for a while until the panicky feeling stopped.

At 2pm the not being able to breathe feeling came back and began to panic more. Feeling like you can't breathe can really cause some freaky scared feelings. I called my doc & they got me right in.

EKG was clear, no idea what's going on, too young for heart stuff & no history of it. Here's some Xanax, go see a Cardiologist.

Fine.

Ok. So that was June 28th. I can't get an appt to see the Cardio until 7/6. I feel ok most of the time, the Xanax does definitely help to keep me calm, but each day I notice more & more that I'm tired and have a heavy feeling in my chest. My day job is extremely easy & I work from home, so I'm getting lots of rest. And for some reason my online classes are slow so I'm not doing a lot of talking either (I'm an online trainer by day).

Go see the Cardio on 7/6. Clear EKG, but he wants blood work, a chest xray and to do some testing. So I'm scheduled for an Echo Cardiogram, a stress test & I will have to wear a heart monitor for 24 hours soon. Blood work & Xray are done on 7/6.

I get the report of a clear chest xray the next day. Still haven't heard about the blood work, but figure no news is good news!

Thursday morning I have an hour long class to teach. Mind you, this means I'm talking for an hour straight. Nothing I've ever had to even think about in like 5 years when I first started teaching online. About 25 minutes into the class, I'm getting dizzy and labored breathing.

After class I lay down and eventually start to feel better. I might have even slept for a little bit (so glad my kids are older now)

Saturday morning my husband actually witnesses me have one of these breathing issue attacks. Even though I've already had a chest xray that came back clear, breathing issues can cause a panic attack, and it get progressively worse. .

So off we go to the ER.

4 hours and several tests later, including a CAT scan, the doc figures I must have bruised my chest wall because my heart looks great & so do my lungs. This probably happened when I jumped and ran away from the wave on 6.28.

RX for Prednisone and Vicodin and rest.

Here it is Tuesday 7.12 and I just did an hour long class. I took it a little slow but got through it without wanting to pass out. So that's good.

But this having to rest SUCKS! I want to vacuum, but nope can't do that.

I want to exercise because I also quit smoking on 7/5 and now with the Steroid, I'm terrified of gaining back the weight! Can't do that either!

So I'll sit here like an old lady and complain about my ailments to anyone who will listen (or read).

Thank you for reading this. Your present for getting this far is the following coupon code for my shop.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

I decided last week that I was going to quit smoking on 7/5/11. I had a party to go to on 7/3 and I figured I'd smoke whatever I had left over on Monday and then be done with it.

So at 11:55pm 7/4/11 I lit my last cigarette.

Here it is 33 hours later & I haven't hurt anyone, yet. There are a few people who thankfully don't live close enough for me to go over to their house and smack them.

But I haven't really left the house either LOL

I started smoking in 1983 at 13 years old. I smoked pretty regularly until October 1994 when I quit for the first time after my mother died of lung cancer.

Yep, family history of lung cancer. Killed my mother's mom too.

Like the target on my lungs?

But did that stop me from picking it back up a few years later. NOPE I'm invincible (ie stupid).

My one brother is even worse. After years of telling me I'm a loser for smoking, he started smoking regularly at 37 years old. Several years AFTER our mother died of lung cancer.

From 1996 on I would smoke for a few years and quit for a few years. This last time I think I've been smoking for about 3 years. So last Tuesday when I was at the beach for sunrise, I decided enough is enough and that I would quit on 7/4.

And I did.

I told my children and husband that I am going to try my hardest to quit, but that I may back slide on occasion. I asked them to give me some patience while I go through withdrawal of the nicotine and let me tell you, they've been awesome and very supportive!

Wish everyone else could be as well. But leopards don't change their spots, even if you need them too.

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About Me

My name is Suzie and I can tell you that what you see on TV is NOT the real Jersey Shore. I’ve been coming down the Jersey Shore since I was an infant and 10 years ago I convinced my now ex husband that it would a great place to raise our 2 sons. A few years ago I discovered Beach Writing and knew it was something I wanted to share, I love the beach. Starting my day watching the sun rise over the Atlantic Ocean and feeling the sand between my toes is so good for my psyche.
By day, besides being a mom to two teenaged boys, I am an online trainer. I teach a computer program to corporate clients for a small company out of Ohio. I can work from home and run my Etsy shop.
My mother was the most influential, even though she passed away in 1994, long before the idea of beach writings even entered my mind, she shared her love of the beach with me as a child and now it’s just a part of my soul.
It hit me one day that I was a real artist, it was after my first couple of sales on Etsy. It’s one thing when family and friends say they like your work, it’s completely different when it’s random customers from all over the world.